Mari A. Schaefer, Maria Panaritis, and Joelle Farrell (thanks, Mark): Vanessa Dorwart was out the door in a flash.
The Interboro High School sophomore seldom went anywhere without first considering, "How do I look?" But on this late February morning, the 15-year-old got out of bed, pulled her hair into a ponytail, threw on some clothes, and zipped out.
No primping. No purse. No Burberry perfume.
It was just Vanessa, her BlackBerry, and a 11/2-mile walk to the Norwood train station.
"I'm going out real quick," she told her older sister, Frankie, 17, also home sick from school. The sky was blank and the air thick with the kind of chill you get before a winter storm. Weary souls were bracing for more snow in a paralyzing winter.
"I'm meeting up with Kelly and Gina, and I'll be back."
Vanessa, Kelly Cashwell, and Gina Gentile were a teenage triumvirate, inseparable. They liked sleepovers, dances, and Facebook, this tight trio from a cluster of towns just beyond the runways of Philadelphia International Airport.
Vanessa, 9:28 a.m.: "Kell - where the hell are u going"
Leave a comment